Carter Severson led the Moffat County Bulldogs to a dominating win at their home invitational on Saturday.
In a year where the teams in northwestern Colorado have been travel warriors, perhaps even more so than usual, they all found reason to stay close to home for the Moffat County Invitational. And some of that reason may have had something to do with the strength of the individual entries and teams haunting the region this fall. Who needs to travel when you can put a meet this solid together right here in Craig?
Meeker, Steamboat Springs, Rangely, Soroco, West Grand, and Middle Park all showed up. And, from regions farther flung, Aspen, Grand Junction, and Rawlins (Wyoming) put in appearances as well. It's been a while since Craig, Colorado, has seen this many cross country runners in one weekend.
All that said, Moffat County didn't prove to be very accommodating hosts--at least as far as the boys were concerned. The Bulldogs' 22 team points buried the rest of the field.
Ben Kelley took the win in 16:54 (we're not talking the world's fastest course here), but the boys in blue came in a flood after Kelley. Carter Severson placed third, Chris Carrouth fourth, freshman Wyatt Mortenson sixth, Brandon Beason seventh, and freshman Coltyn Terry mopped up in 12th. It was all very simple, thorough, and effective.
Sometimes it pays to run at home.
The girls race quickly broke into two parts--the Sydney Thorvaldson show and the rest of the race. Rawlins' Thorvaldson took the win in 18:04. Once again, it's worth pointing out the the Loudy Simpson Park course is not a fast course. It would be another 110 seconds before anyone else crossed the line.
That "anyone else" was Steamboat's Maggi Congdon. Congdon would be followed, in short order by teammates Winter Boese and Dasha Kuznetsova. And the rout was on.
The Sailors did what Sailors do best and sailed through, completing team scoring by place 10 and accumulating a scant 25 points along the way. Moffat County was a distant second at 60 points. Not many teams are going to keep it close with Steamboat Springs in the team tally this fall.